Marc Raffel: "I doubt that the globalized tennis tour will last!"
The DTB German Pro Series starts at the beginning of June with the aim of giving German tennis professionals a chance to play again. 32 men and 24 women will again be chasing points at ten locations.
by Florian Heer
last edit: May 17, 2020, 02:52 pm
The tournament series and sponsors of the German ATP Challenger Events, the ITF World Tennis Tour and the Tennis Bundesliga will also be offered a platform with the invitation series. Even if the ATP Challenger tournament in Meerbusch, which is held annually in summer, has not yet officially fallen victim to the corona pandemic, the city in North Rhine-Westphalia is supposed to be at the start of July to host the men's semifinals.
"I have not officially canceled the tournament, even if many colleagues in Europe have postponed or canceled their events," organizer Marc Raffel explains as part of the tennis podcast "Challenger Corner" the current status of the Tennis Open Stadtwerke Meerbusch, which is responsible for are planned for August 10th to 16th. "Of course I am realistic and see the chances of being carried out as very small."
Exhibition as a new normal
Raffel, as a qualified sports teacher, DTB-A trainer and owner of the MARA Sport Consulting agency, well networked in the tennis circus, is consequently looking forward to the invitation series of the German Tennis Association. In addition, he had already flirted with holding a similar event.
"Regardless of the plans of the DTB, I wanted to do an exhibition tour with my Challenger colleagues in Braunschweig and Heilbronn, whose events are also affected by the tournament break. I wanted to talk to Dirk Hordorff (note: DTB Vice President) , who immediately replied that we had the same idea. I came to the conclusion that a partnership with the DTB would be better than doing it independently. I also think the concept is good, because the players will collect around two months of practice. "
"Premier class" DTB German Pro Series
Eight groups of four players each, followed by an intermediate round, semi-finals and finals are planned for the week of June 8th. Jan-Lennard Struff and Laura Siegemund are also some of Germany's top professionals. The game is played in the format of the “Champions League” as Raffel calls it.
“It is possible to make a virtue of necessity and to say that I am playing the Champions League instead of a challengers or futures. If I have a good marketing concept at hand, it can even be an upgrade. ”
Restructuring of the substructure desired
In addition, with a view to hosting the international tournament series, Raffel will pose an interesting question in the future: "Will this globalized ATP tour and ITF World Tennis Tour be able to hold up in this form?" And also immediately gives his personal assessment: "I dare to doubt. You have to allow the DTB and the new tournament format to run a test run and eventually establish it in the next few years. ”
Raffel makes comparisons to the economy. “Like a large corporation, ATP and ITF realize that globalization was good, but it was cut to the brim. I compare it to supply chains that no longer take place. When players can no longer travel around the world, they have to think of a new product. I fear that the pandemic will not end in October and that we have to continue to live with it. That's why I can only recommend thinking outside the box and maybe leaving the Grand Slam tournaments and the Masters 1000 events like this, but limiting the substructure to national tours. There, players can then qualify for the big events. It's insane that 16- or 17-year-olds who don't make any money have to fly across oceans and time zones to get an ITF point somewhere. Basically, that's total cap. "
Crisis as an opportunity?
The predecessor of the global ITF Pro Circuit for men was the so-called satellite circuit from 1976, which was organized in the form of contiguous tournament series in Europe and North America. Raffel's approach would thus follow the motto "back to the roots". “Central Europe with Germany, Austria and Switzerland could form a division, for example. The playing field for the third, fourth and fifth class players, who are also great athletes, should be regional.
Raffel also sees the ongoing Covid 19 crisis as an opportunity to successfully set the course for the future. "You have to rethink now. Not only large corporations like DHL, Adidas or Lufthansa have to think about the future, but also the ATP and ITF tour. ”